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CAUSES 



THAT OPERATE TO PRODUCE THE 



PREMATURE DECLINE OF MANHOOD, 



THE BEST MEANS 

OF OBVIATING THEIR EFFECTS AND OF 

BRINGING ABOUT A RESTORATION 

TO HEALTH. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year A. D , 1873, 

By CLIN DINNING & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

By A. E. SMALL, M. D. 



CHICAGO: 

Published by Clindinning & Co., 

35 Clark Street. 



at*™ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 4 

CHAP. I. 

A Geneial view of the Subject 6 

CHAP. II. 

Spermatorrhea from inflammation and irritation 

of the Urethra 9 

CHAP. III. 

Masturbation 1 1 

CHAP. IV. 
How to correct the habit of self-abuse, and cure 

its effects, l8 

CHAP. v. 
Continuation of the effects of self-abuse — 

nocturnal emissions = . .21 

CHAP. VI. 
Sexual excesses, and other causes of Sper- 
matorrhoea 25 

CHAP. VII. 

Spermatorrhoea caused by Ascarides and Gravel, 23 

CHAP. VIII. 

Excessive sexual intercourse in Married life 33 

CHAP. IX. 

The consequences of abnormal seminal emissions, 36 

chap. x. 
Consequences of Spermatorrhoea affecting the 

whole system 43 

CHAP. XI. 
The effect of Spermatorrhoea upon the respiratory 
and the hean, and other organs 47 

CHAP. XII. 

Marriage in relation to sexual weakness 51 

CHAP. XIII. 

Recapitulation and treatment of sexual weak- 
ness 54 

CHAP. XIV. 

The application of Electricity in the treatment 

of sexual weakness 58 



PREFACE. 



In furnishing the following treatise on the " Causes 

THAT INDUCE THE PREMATURE DECLINE OF MAN- 
HOOD," and the most judicious means of removing 
them and curing their effects, the author is aware of 
the many difficulties in the way of producing anything 
like a satisfactory treatise upon the subject. But 
from many years experience he has collected the re- 
sults of his observations into the following pages. 

The remedies employed have been such as he has 
found most effectual, and yet he is aware that in the 
hands of many practitioners other remedies have been 
employed not mentioned in this treatise. 

The work is not arranged so methodically as the 
author could have wished, and yet his object will oe ac- 
complished if he has made any suggestions or thrown 
any light upon the subject that will aid the profession 
or redound to the benefit of the unfortunate. 

With the hope, therefore, that this attempt to supply 
a want in the literature of Homoeopathy will be char- 
itably received, and pave the way for better efforts, the 
work is given to the profession and public. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The chief object to be accomplished in writing a 
treatise on the causes that produce a premature decline 
of manhood, is to point out, explicitly, the best protec- 
tion against them, as well as the most commendable 
measures of relief from their effects. 

2. Sexual debility results from a variety of causes, 
which, in many instances, are avoidable, w r hile in some 
instances it may be constitutional and dependent upon 
a general deterioration of the nutritive and nervous sys- 
tems. 

3. When the cause is known the first inquiry is, can 
it be removed? and can the effect produced be reme- 
died ? No one suffers from the malady with indiffer- 

• ence, and, therefore, it may be concluded that every vic- 
tim to sexual disorder desires radical relief. 

4. From the nature of the affection, those who suf- 
fer are prone to seek aid from any source that promises 
it, and, without some information of a specific nature, 
that will lead to a proper discrimination, a resort to 
nostrums and quackery, injurious in their results, too 
frequently happens. 

5. As there are no two constitutions alike, and sel- 
dom that two cases of suffering are so precisely alike 
that the same treatment will suffice for each, it is pro- 
posed to point out the several grades of the disorder in 
connection with the causes and treatment of each, when 
medical treatment is required. The kind of debility 
particularly under consideration in the following pages 
is generally known under the head of " Involuntary 
emissions of semen," which operates disastrously upon 
the vital condition of manhood. 



CHAPTER I. 

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. 

One of the main characteristics of sexual debility is 
frequent involuntary emissions of the seminal fluid, 
followed by a feeling of exhaustion. For strong, healthy 
and plethoric persons these emissions may occur occa- 
sionally without exciting undue apprehension of the re- 
sult. But even in such persons, where the occurrence 
is frequent and copious, great weakness and lassitude is 
apt to follow, betokening an abnormal condition, that 
requires both hygienic and medical treatment. 

2. In those of vigorous manhood, and of supera- 
bundant vitality, the involuntary evacuation of the sem- 
inal vessels at times may be considered a conservator 
of health, and demanded for its protection. This is 
true so long as such persons remain conscious of their 
occurrence, unaccompanied by general malaise and 
lassitude. 

3. Lascivious dreams are simply reflex symptoms 
conveyed from the distended seminal vesicles through 
the nerves of the brain ; and the most salutary remedy 
for emissions arising from this cause is through matri- 
monial alliance and the legitimate exercise of the 
function. 

4. But emissions that occur without the cognizance 
of the patient, and without erections and pleasurable 
sensations, are of a different character, and may result 
from an abnormal irritability of the sexual organs, and, 
if not arrested, they will deteriorate the general health 
and produce a gradual decline of virility. 

5. The causes that operate to produce increased irri- 
tability are various, and merit separate consideration in 
order to arrive at the means of obviating them, and the 
most rational application of remedies to overcome the 
debility and promote strength. Some of these causes 
are avoidable, and require but a strong effort of the 
will to set them aside ; others are unavoidable, being 



diseased conditions of the urinary organs, from which 
the increased irritability of the sexual organs proceeds. 
These causes can only be removed by well-chosen rem- 
edies, or by the skill of the operative surgeon. 

6. From either class of causes excessive emissions may 
occur, differing only from normal seminal emissions in 
being involuntary and debilitating. The seminal ves- 
icles, ducts, and their orifices may severally participate 
in the irritability, and become so debilitated that semi- 
nal discharges are found to occur frequently, and on the 
slightest provocation. The simple act of urination, the 
effort at stool, or immediately after both, or when 
brought into proximity with female society, severally op- 
erate to provoke seminal emissions, without erections 
or pleasurable sensations, or consciousness of the loss. 
This is properly termed " spermatorrhoea." 

7. Pathologically considered, these seminal evacua- 
tions arise from a variety of causes, and not, as is fre- 
quently asserted, from sexual excesses and abuses. They 
often result from other and quite different causes. 

S. When seminal emissions arise from causes inher- 
ent in the system, their origin is so wrapped in obscu- 
rity that the real cause is overlooked, and, consequently, 
they are found to be the most persistent and difficult of 
cure. It is only when the true pathology of the dis- 
order is discovered that we can arrive at a knowledge 
of the starting-point, so as to institute a rational or suc- 
cessful treatment. Anything short of this necessarily 
subjects the patient to a continual drain upon his con- 
stitution and life. For without duly referring the symp- 
toms to the veritable source from whence they proceed, 
so as to base a proper and curative treatment, in spite of 
remedies given in accordance with symptoms alone, the 
difficulty will progress until the health is undermined 
and the virility destroyed. 

9. The matter must be probed to the bottom, or 
otherwise the symptoms are meaningless, and afford 
but an empty display of phenomena, as likely to mis- 
lead in the treatment as to favor its utility ; for as a 
variety of causes, differing widely in their nature, may 



produce like effect, genuine skill, in the treatment of 
spermatorrhoea, must depend upon a knowledge of the 
real cause as a starting-point. 

10. A glance at the anatomy of the genito-urinary 
apparatus and its relation to neighboring parts, will 
convince any rational practitioner of the reasonableness 
of this assertion ; for who can deny the fact that hard 
impacted feces, pressing upon the seminal vesicles, 
operates to produce more or less disorder in the sexual 
organs? Who does not know that a mismanaged gon- 
orrhoea produces the most disastrous consequences upon 
the testes? And why? Because of their intimate 
anatomical connexion. 

ii. Therefore, let us look after the various causes of 
seminal weakness, which, as so many fountains, send 
forth abnormal excitement to the genital organs, pro- 
ducing emissions and spermatorrhoea. 

1. Urethritis from different sources. 

2. Stricture of the urethra. 
Affections of the rectum and anus. 
Constipation, retained faeces. 
Hemorrhoids and varices or fissures. 
Intestinal worms. 

Chronic inflammation and tenesmus of the blad- 
der. 

Stone or gravel. 
Spinal irritation. 

10. Sexual excesses. 

11. Masturbation. 

12. Prostatitis. 

13. Morbid imagination. 

A careful examination of each of the above will en- 
able us to rationally comprehend the relation between 
cause and effect in each particular case, and show us the 
total insufficiency of a merely symptomatic treatment of 
these diseases. 

12. Either one or all of these causes have a close re- 
lation to the genital organs, and a continual Irrita- 
tion from either forms a source of determination of 
blood, congestion, swelling, excessive irritability of the 



4- 
5- 
6. 

7- 



9- 



testes, spermatic cord, seminal vesicles, prostate gland, 
and veru-montanum, and thence erections at first, and 
seminal emissions. In time the erections cease ; the 
membrum-virile becomes flaccid, and the fluid constantly 
passes off, altered in quality, thin, and void of the char- 
acteristic spermatozoa. With this general view of the 
subject we may form some idea of the nature and ex- 
tent of the malady under consideration. 

CHAPTER II. 

SPERMATORRHOEA FROM INFLAMMATION AND IRRITA- 
TION OF THE URETHRA. 

Chronic inflammation of the urethra, from whatever 
cause, extends itself by means of continuity of structure 
not only to the bladder, uterus and kidneys, but also to 
the organs of reproduction. This inflammation may 
be produced, 1st, By mechanical injury, inflicted by in- 
struments used by onanists, such as pencils or quills, 
which they introduce into the urethra to excite pollu- 
tions, when, from frequent and long continued abuse, 
the urethra becomes insensible to other excitants. Frag- 
ments of such instruments have been known to remain, 
forming a nucelus for inflammation. 

Blows, bruises, and other occasional injuries may 
provoke spermatorrhoea. The great sensitiveness of the 
urethra, and the unavoidable admixture of the urine 
with the blood, from such injuries, renders wounds or 
mechanical abrasions or squeezes of the greatest impor- 
tance. 

To cure a spermatorrhoea, originating from causes of 
this kind, the unnatural use of the instruments must be 
banished ; all pressure must be removed, and all posi- 
tions leading to contusion or pressure upon the organ 
should be avoided, and then let moderately cold water 
be freely used for ablutions twice or thrice during the 
day. Arnica at first is an excellent remedy for inter- 
nal administration, and drop doses may be taken sev- 
eral times daily until the soreness and irritability of the 
parts disappear ; when the cause is removed the effect 



IO 



ceases. Should anuca prove insufficient, injections of 
tepid water, with a few drops of the tincture of calen- 
dula, may suffice. The distilled extract of hamamelis 
may be used for the same purpose. 

2. Certain drinks and articles of diet produce an un- 
favorable action upon the urethra, and sometimes cause 
inflammation. Certain medicines, taken in excess, 
have the same influence, such as diuretics. The irrita- 
tion produced by some liquors, such as gin, are proxi- 
mate causes of involuntary seminal emissions. When 
oysters, crabs, or other shell-fish exert an injurious ac- 
tion of the kind, refrain from using them. The same 
advice is given with reference to articles of food or 
drink or medicine known to exert an unfavorable effect 
upon the genital organs, and the spermatorrhoea that re- 
mains as an effect can be easily cured by well-chosen 
remedies. 

A young clerk in a silk house suffered from involuntary 
emission several times a week, until the effect upon his 
health began to be noted. He applied to a physician, 
who inquired critically into his habits, all of which he 
found quite regular, excepting eating late at night. On 
inquiry it was found that he indulged freely in such 
food as eggs and oysters. He was advised to confine 
himself to regular meals, and to avoid both the eggs 
and oysters — to partake of beef, mutton, and vegetables, 
and avoid poultry and stimulating soups. At first but 
little change was noted ; his digestion seemed somewhat 
impaired. Nux vom. 3d was given half an hour after 
each meal, and he soon recovered from the emissions 
and gained robust health. 

Another young man, who suffered much from this 
difficulty, was constantly annoyed by difficult digestion 
and depressed spirits, was cured by Pulsatilla, 3 ; dose 
three times a day, after duly regulating his diet. 

3. Another source of inflammation of the urethra is 
infection from impure sexual exposure and in urethral 
stricture from chancre ; from these an irritation is set up 
which results in pollutions of a serious character. To 
cure these, if they result from simple urethritis or gon- 



II 

orrhoea, and particularly if there is much smarting when 
urinating, aconite may be taken first, and afterwards 
cannabis sativa. Several cases of this kind have been 
noted: A gentleman of middle age having contracted 
gonorrhoea, which he supposed himself entirely cured 
of, was afterwards the victim of nocturnal emissions, 
which weakened his whole system. He was greatly 
depressed, and suffered inveterate constipation. He 
had applied to one physician after another without ben- 
efit, until he despaired of finding relief. He finally 
consulted a Homoeopathic physician, who minutely in- 
quired into his antecedents, and then prescribed nux 
vom. to remove the constipation ; after nux lycopo- 
dium was given, and his bowels moved freely, without 
difficulty. The 6th attenuation of these remedies 
was used. A diet of toast and steak in the morning, 
with a cup of black tea ; beef or mutton with vege- 
tables for dinner, and brown bread or toast for tea, w 7 as 
directed, cannabis sativa 6th was given every six hours, 
for a w^eek, in connection with this diet, and the patient 
found himself greatly relieved ; and this treatment was 
afterward continued until he was completely rid of the 
difficulty. 

Other cases were cured by addressing remedies 
directly to the proximate cause, and afterwards to the 
resulting symptoms. When the urethral irritation is 
subdued, and the pollutions still continue, cannabis sa- 
tiva or cantharis will generally cure. 

When stricture of the urethra is ascertained to be 
the existing cause of emissions, the stricture must be 
removed before the difficulty can cease. Sulphur 3d 
will often accomplish the whole, in connection with a 
well regulated diet. To secure regularity of the bowels, 
nux v., sulphur and mercurius sol. may be used advan 
tageously. 

CHAPTER III. 

MASTURBATION. 
We shall now consider a cause of urethral irritation 
which by many is believed to be one of the most dete- 



riorating vices incident co the youth of both sexes. 
Very early in life boys have been initiated into habits 
of self-abuse, and if no one finds an opportunity to 
advise and counsel them otherwise, by pointing out the 
dangerous consequences of the practice, the habit be- 
comes fixed and difficult to break. After a while such 
a youth begins to grow sickly, pale, nervous, and un- 
manly, and unless the habit is arrested in time, and the 
victims become sensible of the danger, his approach 
to manhood is fraught with entailed consequences, that 
finally render him an object of pity and disgust. Youth 
of fifteen or sixteen summers, who indulge in this vice, 
may soon bring about an irritation of the urethra that 
merges into real inflammation, attended by a secretion 
which has a close relation to pollutions and spermator- 
rhoea. It is our purpose, therefore, to treat this subject 
somewhat in detail, in order to give an insight into the 
best remedial measures for the protection of virility. 

2. Immediately before the age of puberty and during 
the transition period, as well as after, unknown long- 
ings and desires assert their supremacy in the youthful 
mind. These are the first utterings of sexual instinct, 
though scarcely recognized as such by the subjects. 
Some arrive at this period earlier and some later. In 
peculiarly irritable constitutions the instinct after pu- 
berty manifests itself with great intensity, and exhibits 
its effects in certain tendencies to bodily ailments and 
frailties. 

3. When by the allurements of others such youth are 
initiated into solitary habits of exciting the genitals, 
first by filling the mind with impure thoughts and 
imaginings, and then by manual interference, the most 
pernicious and degrading habit of self-pollution steals 
over them, and soon results in physical weaknesses 
which are prophetic of the early decline of manhood. 

4. The defect of early education, coupled with direct 
temptation and the allurements of evil association, 
often form the basis or starting point for a career of 
miserable habits, that sooner or later prey upon the 
mental and physical constitution. When once initia- 



13 

ted and predisposed, both mind and body become sub- 
ject to excitement from otherwise trivial causes. Novel 
reading, love stories and sickly sentimentalism of every 
kind, become disastrous allurements to the habit of 
masturbation. These allurements and dangers often 
override the rigid supervision of parents and educators, 
and beset the youthful and impressible mind in many 
different ways. 

It is a fact no less sad than true, that very many in 
their tender years, and even in childhood, are brought 
through one means or another into mental excitement 
and thence into actual abuse of the genital organs, 
which becomes a habit of greater or less injury. 

By such abuses the genital organs become impaired 
and diseased, and the strength and life of the entire 
organism becomes undermined. 

These excesses are so extremely dangerous and in- 
evitablv ruinous to body and mind that it is of the 
utmost importauce to detect and arrest them before it 
is too late, and to promote this end young boys should 
be subject to the kindest and most friendly supervision, 
and every prudent effort should be made directly and 
indirectly to withdraw them from such influences and 
habits as excite sexual phantasies, and without ac- 
quainting them with the friendly object intended, great 
care should be exercised in diverting their minds from 
all misleading thoughts and inclinations before they 
have become so rooted that all attempts to obliterate 
them prove a failure. 

To accomplish this requires: 

ist. A provision of suitable and useful' employment 
for mind and body. 

2d. To withhold all kinds of seductive reading and 
theatricals, and all imprudent mixing with the opposite 
sex, such as allowing them after early childhood to oc- 
cupy the same sleeping apartments and to share the 
same couch. Experience and observation have estab- 
lished beyond a doubt the imprudence, if not the wick- 
edness, of allowing such practices. 

3d. But at suitable times and under the supervision 



14 



of proper restraints, boys and girls should be encouraged 
in outdoor sports and open air exercise. It is a mis- 
taken idea to suppose that the cause of virtue is pro- 
moted by keeping them secluded from the society of 
each other. For sucii is not the case. The reverse 
often begets that sickly, unhealthy secret brooding that 
creates a want of self-respect and dread of social inter- 
course. It is far better that boys should have the ad- 
vantage of associating in suitable plays and pastimes 
with girls of their own age, while at the same time 
every moral and elevating influence should be exer- 
cised over them by their parents and guardians. 

4th. If a suspicion exists that boys indulge in self- 
abuse, let them be quietly watched until the truth is 
ascertained. An inclination to be alone and in secluded 
places often excites suspicion of self-abuse, and espe- 
cially if after such seclusions they seem pale and ex- 
cited, or depressed and morose or peevish and fretful. 
And unusually timid boys and young men addicted 
to self-abuse are generally shy and timid. They be- 
tray an absence of manhood and appear cowardly, and 
moreover the countenance betrays with nearly the same 
certainty as it does the tippler or opium eater, and when 
interested and affectionate friends learn from these 
signs the painful fact, their friendly aid is demanded, 
they should point out to the erring youth the sad effects 
that must inevitably follow this habit. Many a boy, 
bright and lively at ten years of age, has become dull^ 
sickly and mentally dejected before his twenty summers 
by such miserable self-abuse. A slow, hesitating speech, 
a blundering mode of speaking, a bad memory and 
dullness of apprehension in general, are the usual fruits 
of this sin ; and since so much is at stake, and the guilty 
ones are so prone to deny their pernicious habits, no 
prudent means of detection should be neglected. If 
necessary the bed linen and shirts should be called into 
requisition to afford confirmation of the fact, and if 
caught in the practice let them be told in a fatherly and 
affectionate way the disastrous consequences, not once 
only, but many, many times, until the habit is subdued 



*5 

5th. This course will hardly fail to make a favorable 
impression on young and pliable minds, and if the 
will power at first is inadequate, gentle encouragement 
and the aid of solicitous parents will greatly stimulate 
resolution till the habit is conquered. 

When made fully sensible of the dreadful conse- 
quences of self-abuse, there are but few so reckless and 
incorrigible as to countenance and continue the habit. 
Mechanical means of restraint has ' sometimes been 
found necessary to aid the efforts of young men in dis- 
sipating the inclination and practice. The best medical 
counsel may also be necessary to aid in bringing 
.about this desirable result, and it would be adding 
crime to crime to withhold any measure capable of ar- 
resting the criminal practice. 

We have thus far treated of masturbation as a crime 
involving the voluntary surrender of manhood. But 
now we propose to consider other causes that may in- 
duce the habit, that places the victim more in the light 
of a sufferer than in that of a sinner. Ascarides or pin 
worms in the rectum sometimes induce an itching that 
implicates in no small degree the genitals of young 
boys, and compels them to scratch and rub until they 
unconsciously fall into the habit of masturbation. 
Herpetic eruptions that burn and itch may compel 
similar habits, terminating in the same way. The 
reason why the habit operates so injuriously upon 
the entire organism, whether induced by vicious allure- 
ments, morbid broodings, or sickly love stories, or by 
diseased conditions as detailed above, is because of the 
close proximity and relation of the sexual apparatus to 
the spinal cord, thence to the brain, which first receive 
the shock and then by reflex action the urinary and 
digestive systems become affected. But the injury does 
not stop here ; the mind becomes filled with impure im- 
ages exciting the brain, and thence the memory and men- 
tal faculties. It finally ends in hypochondria, melan- 
choly and suicide, or in epilepsy, apoplexy or dementia. 

The intensity of the shock which the habit imparts to 
the whole system, and the consequent prostration and 



i6 



debility must especially prove injurious to the organs 
properly supplied with nerves. The stomach, there- 
fore, is liable to become distended, and nutrition is 
seriously interrupted ; the entire body as a consequence 
fails of receiving sufficient nourishment, it gradually 
gets weaker, the nerves become unstrung and disposed 
to paralytic weakness and cramps ; and as during the 
act there is a determination of blood to the brain, fre- 
quent cases of apoplexy have terminated the fatal 
habit ; or otherwise ten or fifteen per cent, of the num- 
ber of inmates of the lunatic asylums prove to have 
been the victims of this vice. 

Self-abuse has another peculiar effect, if not early ar- 
rested : it destroys sexual enjoyment and entails cold- 
ness in the conjugal bed, and begets disappointment 
and unhappiness and completely frustrates the fulfil- 
ment of marriage relations. 

It is to be feared that many who attain to a mar- 
riageable age refrain from entering into wedlock by rea- 
son of the cold indifference toward the institution, 
which results from this vice. They prefer the mistaken 
enjoyment of solitary self-abuse to the satisfaction of 
legitimate sexual intercourse. 

It will be seen, then, that self abuse requires greater 
exertion of the sexual organs than a natural embrace, 
and that they are weakened by oft-repeated and un- 
natural irritation, as the opportunities are more fre- 
quent than for natural intercourse, and the constrained 
position of standing or sitting must prove more in- 
jurious to muscles and nerves that are brought into re- 
quisition, it follows conclusively that greater muscular 
and nervous weakness must result from the act. It is 
also manifest that in a natural embrace the excitement 
is participated in by two, whereas in self-abuse it is en- 
tirely cultivated by one's own imagination, and must 
therefore prove the more exhausting. Self-abuse is 
more dangerous because it withdraws its victims from 
society and leads to solitary dwelling upon themselves, 
or to musings and broodings of so low a quality that 
they fall into the pit of melancholy and thus make com- 
plete shipwreck of health and life. 



J 7 

In order to place safeguards around unsophisticated 
youth and boys in early life, parents and teachers must 
be vigilant and ready to comprehend the importance 
of directing their thoughts and habits in the right direc- 
tion at first. They should teach them to avoid such 
plays as suggest and often prove the beginning of in- 
jurious habits. It is far better to avoid the causes of 
urethritis at first than to be successful even in curing 
pollutions and spermatorrhoea. 

As boyhood and youth passes away, and manhood 
supervenes, strictures produced by indiscretions of 
youth, may be the constant cause of spermatorrhoea. 
These strictures arise from various causes ; the worst 
and most difficult to cure are for the most part traced 
to badly treated gonorrhoea. But those arising from 
the cicatrices of wounds, or from urethral chancre, are 
caused from the folding of the mucous lining of the 
canal, and are sufficiently formidable. For the folding 
and swelling and formation of valves by fibrous indura- 
tions of the mucous membrane, are tedious in duration 
and difficult to cure. Strictures generally have their seat 
in that portion of the urethra where the inflammation 
has been the greatest and the suppuration the most ap- 
parent. There may be more than one near or more re- 
mote from the orifice of the bladder. The narrower 
and longer they are the greater the obstruction to the 
passage of urine and semen, and the portion posterior 
to the strictures becomes distended, and presses indi- 
rectly upon the seminal vesicles so violently as to 
weaken and injure, and thus be the source of an ob- 
structed spermatorrhoea. 

Strictures may also produce other obstructions more 
and more interiorly until effete and irritating matters 
which should be thrown offmeet with obstructions, and 
are thrown back upon the delicate seminal vesicles, 
and result in weakening them to a degree that destroys 
their normal functions, or so paralyzes the tenacity of 
the ducts as to allow the seminal fluid to flow off unno- 
ticed without any sensation or erection ; in this way sper- 
matorrhoea results, and impotence becomes inevitable. 



The effects of masturbation not only extend to the 
urethra, prostate gland and bladder, but to contiguous 
structures. The rectum becomes affected — the sphinc- 
ter-ani contracts, varices and hemorrhoids are sever- 
ally the result of urethral irritation. Stricture and fre- 
quent urging to urinate, hemorrhages from the bowels, 
prolapsus and all the various hemorrhoidal ailments 
sometimes refer themselves to the same cause, though 
too frequently overlooked, and on this account a mis- 
directed treatment is liable. 

Spasmodic strictures as well as those caused by 
urethral inflammation, may result from self-abuse, and 
also those resulting from enlarged veins of the urethra, 
from gouty deposits, urinary calculi, and forcible 
catherization, may provoke spermatorrhoea or emis- 
sions. 

Since strictures are so often the cause of seminal 
weakness, and self-abuse may be the first cause of the 
urethral inflammation that produces them, it is well to 
be familiar with the symptoms of stricture that they 
may receive early attention. The first symptom is the 
retarded flow of urine, and also the urging to force the 
urine by reason of some sensible obstruction, behind 
which the urine accumulates ; the stream is changed in 
form and volume, at first very small, afterward sluggish, 
and finally a mere dribble from the urethral orifice. 
This departure from the normal standard is so marked 
that no one can fail to discover it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW TO CORRECT THE HABIT OF SELF-ABUSE AND 
CURE ITS EFFECTS. 

i. Tt is for parents and guardians to impress ex- 
tremely young subjects with the wickedness and danger 
of the practice, to watch over them and correct them 
for every known indulgence. There is but little diffi- 
culty in correcting this abuse while the victims are 
very young and before the habit is confirmed. 

2. When boys are associated together and become 
each other's instructors in the vice, let such associations 



*9 

be broken up, Older boys often initiate younger ones 
and fill their susceptible and tender minds with lewd 
thoughts, and great care to guard against evil associa- 
tions is absolutely requisite when such, before the age 
of puberty, begin to exhibit that peculiar cast of the 
countenance and debility consequent upon such early 
vice. Let them be impressed that the debility and 
sickness is brought on by the crime. Strengthen the 
impression by holding up the terrible and almost fatal 
results that will surely follow, if they habitually re- 
peat the act or allow themselves to be misled by 
wicked associates. When first debilitated, give such, 
in connection with moral restraint, cinchona, 6th dilu- 
tion, ten drops in half a tumbler of water, and give a 
desert spoonful three times a day. The above is the 
proper treatment when the self-abuse has been wicked- 
ly initiated by older delinquents. 

3. Parents should so carefully guard the health of 
tneir children as to obviate all diseased condi- 
tions liable to induce scratching or rubbing the 
genitals, for in this way the habit of masturbation 
may be acquired; pin- worms or seat-worms of the anus 
produce a disastrous itching, and so do herpetic erup- 
tions in the vicinity of the genitals, and too great care 
cannot be exercised in determining whether or not 
such disease exists. If the fact becomes established: 
for the pin-worms, give sulphur, 6th, ten drops in half 
a tumbler of water, a dessert spoonful every night ; if 
this does not allay the itching, follow with nux vomica 
in the same way, and teach the boy not to scratch or 
rub. If there is any eruption that causes much itching 
of the parts, sulphur taken as above is required. In 
scrofulous children these troubles are liable to occur 
and be the means of spontaneously initiating them into 
the habit of self-abuse ; cure the cause, and with 
proper instruction the effect will cease. Ammonia 6th, 
calcarea carb., 6th, and sometimes petroleum, 6uh, with 
suitable moral restraint, will prove sufficient to correct 
these abuses. 

4. To cure self-abuse in boys after they have passed 



20 



the age of puberty, requires in part the same measures 
as for those younger. They must be impressed with 
the heinousness of the crime, if voluntarily committed ; 
and also with the inevitable consequences upon the 
physical and mental health. Nothing can cure them 
or break them but a determined resolution to renounce 
the habit. To aid them in doing it, suitable employ- 
ment for mind and body must be provided ; and they 
must be made to realize that the practice is a sin 
against God. No protection against the vice is certain 
but a voluntary refraining from it from the highest of 
all motives ; that it is a sin against God and an abuse 
of themselves. 

5. To correct these morbid states of mind that favor 
the habits, let the youth be supplied with entertaining 
and useful reading, and if already there is more or less 
disturbance of the organic functions, which react upon 
the brooding and susceptible mind, remedial measures 
are necessary. 

6. To guard against the disposition to self-abuse, 
calcarea curb., 3d trituration, may be given every even- 
ing for a week. If there is any disturbance of the 
digestive system follow the caL c. with nux vomica, 3d, 
every evening one hour before retiring for another 
week, observing at the same time to engage in such 
amusements as chess and other intellectual games, and 
sometimes in dancing or base ball. If the onanist finds 
himself weak, let him take china, 3d. If he has stiff- 
ness of the back or some pain in the small of the back, 
let him take cocculus, 3d. If after the habit is sub- 
dued any debility remains, china, 3d, may be taken 
three times a day until the debility is overcome. When 
the genitals are easily excited and suggest a return of 
the habit, phos. ac, 3d, in water will be found useful. 
Morbid erections and lascivious dreams require can- 
thai'is, 3d, three times a day. 

7. We have thus pointed out the ways that generally 
lead to self-abuse, as well as the surest means of ar- 
resting the habit, and it may be remarked that onan- 
ism once fixed is classed among the most inveterate of 



21 

habits. But it can be cured if proper attention is bestow- 
ed to the right kind of discipline and medication. The 
longer the habit remains the more deteriorating the 
effects upon the nervous system, and thence upon the 
nutritive functions. For the acute effects which 
arise from excessive rather than from long continued 
abuse we have named as remedies, china, cocculus and 
phos. ac, to which may be added mere, sol., 3d, and 
.phosphorus, But for slow chronic effects, sulphur 
may be given at long intervals, or perhaps carbo vege- 
tabihs, an( i a generous diet. 

For weakness and flaccidity of the penis, china may 
be taken three or four times a week. 

For excessive nervousness and timidity, cale. phos. 
may be taken in daily doses. 

If there is a dull, indefinable bewilderment and sub- 
acute headache, nux vomica, or perhaps zincum met. 
will often cure. 

For the minor consequences that remain after the 
habit has ceased, the above remedies are of the great- 
est importance. 

CHAPTER V. 

CONTINUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE, NOC- 
TURNAL EMISSIONS. 
By these emissions are understood seminal dis- 
charges that occur during sleep, and are dependent 
upon an enfeebled condition of the seminal vesicles, 
and irritation as the predisposing cause, that for the 
most part result from previous self-abuse. They differ 
from spermatorrhoea in taking place from excitement 
of the genital organs and erections, which seem to be 
produced by lascivious dreams, or by reason of the 
bladder being filled with urine. The quality of these 
discharges does not differ materially from the normal 
character of healthy semen ; nevertheless they result 
from debility that has been induced from some cause 
of irritation of the urethra or weakening of the semi- 
nal ducts. 



22 



2. Those which are entailed as an effect of mastur- 
bation first demand our attention, because they occur 
frequently and sometimes nightly, and are followed by 
great weakness and depression. The victims of these 
emissions often are made unhappy and wretched, be- 
cause they know that habits which they have succeeded 
in conquering were the primary cause, and they often 
seem willing to endure the suffering than to apply for 
relief. But disease from any cause may be curable, and 
such is the case with regard to these nocturnal emis- 
sions. We have had considerable experience in the 
treatment of such cases, and undoubtedly they are gen- 
erally curable. 

3. In the case of a young man who had been guilty 
of self-abuse until seventeen years, on being aroused 
to his condition he voluntarily abandoned the habit, 
and turned his attention to a conscientious religious 
life. But his whole system w 7 as greatly impaired. He 
was dyspeptic and nervous, depressed and melancholic, 
and found himself the victim of almost nightly emis- 
sions. He sought a confidential medical adviser, who 
at once comprehended the nature of his suffering For 
more than a year he had refrained from the polluting 
habit, hoping that his health and strength would re- 
turn to him without obliging him to resort to a phy- 
sician. But on the contrary, he found his health de- 
clining he fancied himself the victim of imbecility, and 
his mind was filled with fearful forebodings of a dis- 
astrous future. 

4. The first measure of relief resorted to by his phy- 
sician was to encourage his hopes and direct his mind 
from himself to the consideration of topics that would 
be most likely to give a healthy tone to his moral and 
religious aspirations. He further taught him that the 
study of arithmetic and the solution of its problems 
upon slate or blackboard would strengthen his manly 
faculties, whereas the reading of sentimental stories 
would have the opposite effect. All of which the 
young man seemed to appreciate. 

5. After pointing out a mental and moral course that 



2 3 

would favor a radical cure, the physician commenced 
with him a course of medical treatment. Finding his 
patient the victim of excessive sexual excitement, he 
first gave him the sixth decimal attenuation of can- 
tharis, four globules three times a day, and prohibited 
the use of all stimulating drinks, including coffee and 
all stimulating aliments calculated to excite sensual 
feelings, such as oysters, crabs, lobsters, etc., etc. This 
first prescription was continued for live or six days, 
and the young man felt a sensible relief. But feeling 
dull and stupid, and having a dread of society and still 
suffering, but less frequently, from emissions, phos- 
phoric acid, 6th, was given in water three times a 
day ; there was a gradual improvement, and the emis- 
sions were less frequent. The patient, as directed, 
confined himself to a light nutritious diet, under which 
his strength improved ; occasional seasons of malaise 
and weakness were cured by china, 3d. For two years 
his whole system became more and more robust, and 
he rejoiced in finding himself radically cured. 

6. For the debility brought on by onanism, china is 
quite generally the best remedy, and it only requires 
an early cessation of the habit, a careful diet, and a 
good occupation for the mind, as well as a persistent 
perseverance with this remedy to effect a perfect 
restoration to health. 

7. For emissions brought on exclusively by this vice, 
attended with extreme sense of weakness, provided a 
proper attention is paid to diet and employment for 
the mind, china will seldom fail of curing. 

8. For the depression of spirits and. nervous restless- 
ness, hypophosphite of lime in the third trituration, 
taken in 3 grain doses morning and evening, will suf- 
fice. But the remedy must be taken a sufficient length 
of time to ensure its effect. 

9. Nightly emissions have been cured by digitalis in 
those of bilious temperament subject to melancholy. 
The 3d dilution is employed, but for any treatment to 
be successful the cause must be removed The diet 
should be well regulated, the mind must be accustomed 



2 J. 



to dwell upon profitable subjects, and there must be a 
firm reliance upon the remedies. In addition to those 
already cited for nocturnal emissions, sepia often has a 
salutary effect, and in some inveterate cases sulphur. 
3d, taken in daily doses, will effect a radical cure. 

10. A student of theology, aged 25, found his health 
declining on account of the debilitating effects of noc- 
turnal emissions, which were brought on by self-abuse 
in early life. He applied for medical treatment. The 
3d aqueous dilution of phosphoric acid, while under a 
strict regimen as to diet, was administered three times 
a day for a month ; after which his health improved 
rapidly, and he rejoiced in finding himself no longer 
troubled with the emissions. He was enabled to 
pursue his studies without difficulty. 

11. A young man desirous of entering into matri- 
mony, hesitated on account of the state of health which 
early self-abuse had entailed. He suffered from fre- 
quent involuntary emissions when asleep, and from the 
consequent loss of mental vigor and physical strength 
which usually follow. Alarmed on the account, he 
sought advice and medical treatment. He complained 
of a dull pain in the region of the lumbar vertebrae, and 
flaccidity of the penis. He suffered from tedious con- 
stipation and hemorrhoids, that often protruded from 
the anus ; nux z/., 3d trituration, was first prescribed — 
a. three-grain powder every night half an hour before 
retiring — after which he was somewhat relieved of 
constipation ; but there was no improvement in other 
respects. Sulphur 6th, was then substituted for the 
mix v. and continued for a week ; no good result fol 
lowed ; conium mac, 6th dilution , ten drops in half a 
tumbler of water, was directed to be given in table- 
spoonful doses, morning and evening. He soon felt 
better, and after two weeks the hemorrhoids disap- 
peared, the pam in the back \\ as better, and normal 
virility returned. A short time after the young man 
got married, and has lived happily with his wife for the 
last five years, and is the father of two children, a 
son and a daughter. 



2 5 

12. Coniwniy 3d, 6th and 30th attenuation have been 
advantageously employed in the treatment of nocturnal 
emissions, or those that occur involuntarily at other 
times, when there is a flaccidity of the membrum virile 
and a sense of weakness and pain in the back. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SEXUAL EXCESSES AND OTHER CAUSES OF SPERMA- 
TORRHOEA. 

By spermatorrhoea is understood the unconscious loss 
of the seminal fluid when at stool or when urinating, 
or at other times from the most trivial exciting cause, 
when there are no erections, but a mere flaccid state of 
the penis. The first cause of this weakening dis- 
charge,which we shall consider at some length, is sexual 
EXCESSES, both hi unmarried and married life. In the 
former a reckless roaming lust, and the frequenting of 
brothels, wherewith to become satiated by frequent in- 
dulgence, are the primary causes of genital weakness 
that result in the premature decline of manhood. The 
effect of excesses of this kind, for the sake of gratify- 
ing the mere lust for variety, is to bring upon the vic- 
tim a train of evil consequences hardly to be enumer- 
ated. 1st, upon the vital condition of the general or- 
ganism ; and 2d, upon those organs essential to the in- 
tegrity of manhood. After a general debauch, there is 
a complete derangement of the functions, nutrition be- 
comes impaired, and the entire body suffers ; and this 
is not all, the mind participates in the general wreck 
and the victim becomes polluted in soul and body 
throughout. Frequent repetition soon reduces the vic- 
tim to the lowest point of physical and moral degrada- 
tion. At first his digestion is impaired, and he resorts 
to a stimulating diet to encourage his lusts ; then fol- 
lows constipation, hemorrhoids and other ailments that, 
in conjunction with a corrupt longing for sexual plea- 
sures, so deteriorate and weaken the sexual system as 
to destroy all power of retaining the seminal fluid, and 
it passes off in spermatorrhoea as readily as feculent 



26 



matter passes from the bowels in chronic diarrhoea. 
The state of his mind is even worse than that of his 
body ; sickened by his own indulgence he at last hates 
the opposite sex, and never conceives of it the idea of 
chastity. Such is the effect of commencing a career of 
indulgence of roaming lust, irrespective of the conse- 
quences. Is there no remedy for a reckless youth of 
this description till all is*' lost? Before the habit is con- 
firmed by repeated indulgence, it is possible to break 
off such a career and voluntarily refrain and reform, 
but as the habit becomes more and more confirmed by 
illicit intercourse with a variety of courtezans, there is 
the greatest danger of the complete wreck of manhood. 
Who is able to utter a successful warning before it is 
too late to save the victim from becoming a mere driv- 
eler and a show, with genital weaknesses that inevit- 
ably lead to absolute destruction of virility, and, a con- 
firmed spermatorrhoea ? * 

2. The most inveterate of all maladies to cure are 
those found in such a wreck of humanity — the fruits of 
unconquered lust. Nevertheless, so long as a spark of 
humanity remains, or in other words, so long as any 
moral sense remains, a struggle to reform is possible. 
When a manly struggle is made to break off lewd prac- 
tices, and the mind is withdrawn from lewd imagin- 
ings, there is at least some hope of recuperation and re- 
covery from the effects of debauchery. If the digestion is 
impaired and the stomach irritable, and rejects the 
food taken into it, ptrisatilla, 6th, in doses of four glo- 
bules, three times a day, may be taken when there is a 
sense of weight in the stomach or a sense of contraction. 
Nux vomica, 6th, may be substituted for the Pulsatilla. 

3. After Pulsatilla and nux have done their work, 
china, 6th, may be taken in the same way. In case of 
constipation and accumulation of hardened feculent 
matter in the rectum, lycopodium, 6th, may be taken 
morning and evening in connection with a diet of 
digestible meats and vegetables, with bran bread, 
fruit such as apples and pears, and no stimulating con- 
diments. Great regularity, in taking the meals, and 



2 7 

the repudiation of late suppers, oysters, etc., are essen- 
tially necessary. 

4. In case of hemorrhoids that become inflamed and 
affect contiguous tissues, so as to produce or augment 
spermatorrhoea, aesculus globra tincture may be taken 
in drop doses in a spoonful of water, and repeated 
every three hours. In very many cases this remedy 
will remove the piles, and if the spermatorrhoea remains 
and the seminal fluid passes off when urinating or 
straining at stool, selenium, 3d, or coniwn, 3d, may be 
dropped in the proportion of ten drops to half a goblet 
of water, and a tablespoonful dose may be taken every 
four hours during the day. A strict observance of the 
above course will accomplish much in recovering the 
lost manhood. 

5. For varices or tumid veins that become so sore 
and painful as indirectly to produce weakness, if not 
paralysis of the seminal vesicles, arnica and Pulsatilla 
are remedies to be consulted. 

6. Affections of the rectum and anus that have re- 
sulted from other causes than sexual excesses, may pro- 
duce spermatorrhoea, and before the latter can be cured 
these affections must be removed, and well chosen 
remedies for the particular troubles often have a salu- 
tary effect. 

7. Retained faeces, by pressing upon the seminal 
vesicles, induce a semi-paralytic state of the muscular 
coat, disabling them so that they cannot resist the pres- 
sure of the faecal masses when at stool, and the seminal 
fluid passes off involuntarily. Similar effects may oc- 
cur during the act of urinating by the contraction of 
the bladder. In every case, therefore, of spermator- 
rhoea, the state of the bowels and the condition of the 
urinary organs should be critically looked after, and 
such remedies must be selected as will be most likely 
to remove the proximate cause, and in a majority of 
cases nux vomica or lycopodium will suffice ; a dose of 
either every night may produce relief. 

8. Fissures of the anus, which are accompanied by 
cramplike contractions of the sphincter ani, and pain at 



28 



stool, tend to retard the evacuations and cause reten- 
tion of faeces. The itching and tickling of these are of 
great importance in explaining many cases of sperma- 
torrhoea. The intolerable itching compels scratching 
the perineum and anal region ; the adjacent testes 
suffer from daily irritation provoked by this act. The 
organs contiguous participate in the irritation, and this 
is often followed by weakness and spermatorrhoea, with- 
out sexual excitement. Sulphur, the 3d trituration, 
taken in 3-grain doses, every night, will generally 
cure the fissures and remove the itching, and conse- 
quently effect a cure. 

9. Herpes, which consists of numerous minute vesi- 
cles upon the scrotum, penis or perineum, and around 
the anus, may burn, itch and smart, and provoke the 
patient to rub and scratch until the genitals become so 
weakened that spermatorrhoea may be occasioned. To 
remove this condition, petroleum has been found a 
specific. 

10. A gentleman of steady, temperate and virtuous 
habits, was almost maddened by this herpetic eruption, 
and spent much time and money in striving for relief, 
was at last advised to take petroleum, the 3d attenua- 
tion, five drops in a spoonful of water, night and morn- 
ing, and in less than two weeks he was entirely cured. 

11. When the seminal vesicles are no longer able to 
serve as reservoirs for the seminal fluid by reason of 
the constant irritation which produces depression and 
weakness, and on the slightest provocation discharge 
their contents, there results an habitual spermatorrhoea. 
Petroleum as above may be given first, and afterward 
sulphur to cure the difficulty. 

CHAPTER VII. 

SPERMATORRHEA CAUSED BY ASCARIDES AND GRAVEL. 

The effect of thread worms upon the sexual sphere 
is both dangerous as well as distressing. They gen- 
erate in the large intestine, and particularly in the 
rectum, and to this circumstance must be attributed 



2 9 

the impotence of some persons who, through their an- 
noying influence, have been initiated into self-abuse, 
and thence into suffering from seminal losses and 
spermatorrhoea. Very young boys often become the 
victims of suffering from these parasites, and compa- 
ratively a less number of adults find themselves vic- 
timized by their presence. 

2. This inconsiderable worm is cylindrical and 
pointed, white in color, about the size of common 
wrapping twine used for tying up small parcels. The 
tail end of the male ends abruptly, and is rolled up in 
a spiral, while in the female it is straight and pointed. 

3. The head is provided with wing- like attachments, 
between which the mouth is situated ; the length va- 
ries from a line to a line and a half. It sometimes 
appears in the evacuation in large numbers, so great 
even as to present the appearance of a constant wrig- 
ling motion. 

4. When we consider the great number of symptoms 
this worm is capable of producing, such as tickling 
the nose, squinting, colic, fits, etc., it is not difficult to 
comprehend the nature of its action upon the anus in 
producing that intolerable itching which is so hard to 
endure, and not only the anus, but the intestines, testi- 
cles and penis, and the most sensitive seminal vesicles, 
exciting them to involuntary emissions by self-abuse, 
or to pollution and spermatorrhoea. 

5. Thread worms produce nearly the same symptoms 
as stone in the bladder; children two or three years 
old suffer constant erections from them. This symp- 
tom affords one of the most positive indications of the 
presence of pin worms, and these boys grow up with 
the constant habit of handling the parts that itch, and 
scratching and rubbing habitually comes up with them 
in some form of self-abuse. 

6. The opposite sex likewise suffer in the same way, 
and are led into habits of self-abuse, until health disap- 
pears and beauty fades. This constant itching and 
scratching irritates the skin, causes the clitoris to be red- 
dened and swollen, and sometimes an ichorous discharge 



3° 



from the vagina, and this only augments the itching, 
burning and swelling of the labia, all of which are 
powerful influences in augmenting self-abuse. We 
shall discuss this matter more fully when we enter upon 
the chapter relating to females entirely. 

7. A learned authority, in treating of this particular 
affection and its consequences, gives as an indication 
of the presence of pin worms, deeply-sunken eyes, sur- 
rounded by blue rings. This appearance persists as an 
outstanding sign of self-pollution, even after the habit 
has been subdued and only its consequences remain ; 
and what are the consequences that remain after the 
habit has been corrected? We will see if w r e can 
divine. 

8. Hypochondriasis, impotence, congestion of the 
brain, apoplectic fits, may all occur from the irri- 
tation produced by these apparently insignificant ver- 
min, though all indulgence in self-abuse is done away 
with, and moreover all these affections have been cured 
when the worms have been removed. Whenever a boy 
or girl is found to be suffering from epileptic fits, in- 
quire critically into their habits, and whether they 
have been sacrificed to the ascaris. Should it be ascer- 
tained that pin worms were preying upon them, cor- 
rect self-abuse, destroy the worms, and nine times out 
of ten the epilepsy will prove to have been mere epilep- 
tiform convulsions caused by these iniquitous thread 
worms, and the patients will speedily recover. 

9. A celebrated writer mentions a case of frequent 
nocturnal emissions of six years standing, which re- 
covered rapidly after the removal of the pin worms, 
which it seems had been the cause. For all other 
means had previously failed, and the rapid convales- 
cence of the patient after their destruction, proves 
them to have been the cause. This case, continues 
the writer, was also characterized by apoplectic 
symptoms and a partial loss of memory. 

10. This writer is of the opinion that young men who 
are suffering from diurnal emissions, without erections 
or pleasurable sensations, were victims of enuresis dur- 



3i 

ing their childhood. In such cases the disease con- 
sists in great irritability and weakness of the bladder, 
increased by the warmth of the bed, and conducted 
from the bladder "to the neighboring sexual apparatus. 
ii. The neck of the bladder is the most sensitive 
when stones are trying to make their exit, and from 
this source the most intensely painful symptoms pro- 
ceed. The more the disease we call " gravel " is pro- 
longed, the longer the durations of ; those affections of 
the bladder, and so much more extensive is the inva- 
sion of thecontiguous parts or organs — the ureters, kid- 
neys, prostate gland, urethra, rectum and vagina, all 
become implicated and somewhat exposed to danger. 

12. The peculiar pains at the neck of the bladder, 
as well as at the base, while walking, sitting at stool, 
etc., and especially the pains experienced at the end of 
the urethra, induce the patient to violent pulling and 
stretching of the penis, and this leads to masturbation. 
Excessive length of penis, and an observable lengthen- 
ing of the prepuce, as well as a thickening of the same, 
indicate the presence of stone in the bladder. 

13. Sudden interruption of the flow of urine takes 
place when small stones are carried into the urethra 
and remain there. The reflex action of this irritation 
upon the rectum, vagina, testicles, kidneys, etc., as 
shown by cramp like contractions of the perineum, 
may produce an abnormal irritation of the whole uri- 
nary and genital apparatus. The tickling which stones 
in the bladder produce in the membrum virile often 
provoke involuntary emissions, and by the irritation 
being transferred to the seminal vesicles, testicles and 
seminal ducts, frequent pollutions and spermatorrhoea 
results, and so far as the physical health is concerned 
these may as well be brought on by masturbation. 

14. A single large stone in the bladder, firmly im- 
bedded in the fundus, may by its weight alone exert 
so strong a pressure upon the seminal vesicles that they 
must empty their contents and gradually suffer a dimi- 
nution from atrophy, to the detriment and destruction 
of the generative function. In this way no other cause 



32 



than stone in the bladder may be the cause of sperma- 
torrhoea and impotence. 

15. The treatment of spermatorrhoea from these 
causes consists in removing them. For that caused by- 
thread worms, such remedies must be employed as will 
exterminate them. Sulphur is an important remedy to 
give first — a dose of the 3d trituration may be given 
every day for a week. This remedy may be followed 
by santonin, 2d trituration, in the same way. Should 
these not be sufficient, terebinth, in drop doses may be 
given twice a day, and other remedies, calc. cina and 
ignatia. A timely use of these remedies will in a ma- 
jority of cases effect a cure. 

16. To cure the spermatorrhoea that has been pro- 
voked by stones in the bladder, requires great care. 
The cause must be removed, or otherwise there is no 
chance for a cure ; when the stones are so large that 
they cannot pass through the urethra while urinating, 
and so hard and compact as to preclude the possibility 
of their reduction by any other process, the sooner 
some skillful surgeon performs the operation of crush- 
ing them the better. It is preferable to undergo the 
pain of lithotomy than to struggle a long time in such 
suffering. After the operation has been successfully 
performed, the after treatment with remedies must be 
in accordance with the symptoms. The soreness and 
pain consequent upon the operation is very soon re- 
lieved by arnica, 6th, ten drops in half a tumbler of 
water, and a tablespoonful may be taken three times a 
day. Urging to urinate or painful urination requires 
cantharis to be prepared and taken the same as arnica. 
Urethral inflammation calls for cannabis sat. It may 
be that these remedies will cure the seminal weakness 
after the cause has been removed. But if they fail, it 
must be attributed to the extensive injury which the 
seminal vesicles have already received. The persistent 
use of china may in time bring up their vitality. 

17. A young gentleman who had always lived a cor- 
rect life, was somewhat rheumatic. He observed that 
his urine deposited a reddish sediment, which stuck 



33 

fast and adhered to the vessel. In process of time he 
passed what he termed red sand when he urinated. He 
finally began to suffer from strangury and irritation 
of the urethra. At last he felt stinging when he 
urinated that extended to the end of the penis. Now, 
in our opinion, if this young man had taken at that time 
a few doses of tart. e?netic, he might have had less suf- 
fering in the future. But he neglected himself and the 
difficulty grew worse, until he began to pass blood with 
his urine, and the heat and irritation was communicated 
to the testes and seminal vesicles exciting pollution and 
spermatorrhoea. The concretions in the bladder be- 
came so massive that lithotomy was a thing indispens- 
able, and a skillful surgeon placed him in position to 
operate, put him under the influence of ether, and 
effectually crushed the deposits, so that they readily 
passed off with the urine, after which he took arnica 
and cannabis and felt quite relieved, but the pollu- 
tions remained and frequently the semen would 
pass off with the urine, and when at stool. Digit- 
alis given in drop doses of the 3d dilution had a 
good effect. Hypophosphite of lime was given three 
times a day for a week or ten days, and the patient 
had no trouble afterward. 

18. The diet in these cases should be barley water 
for drink, fruits, esculents, and good digestible meat 
and fish ; all food tending to bind up the bowels so as 
to render constipation habitual, must be avoided. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

EXCESSIVE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IN MARRIED LIFE. 

Marriage is intended for a higher, holier and hap- 
pier purpose than unlimited indulgence in sexual in- 
tercourse. It is not a license for excessive coitus, and 
therefore when made such the worst of consequences 
may follow. 1st, weakness of the general system ; 2d, 
weakness and derangement of the function of reproduc- 
tion. 

1. Weakness of the general system is produced b> 



34 



a series of disturbances which we will proceed to 
explain. When a man and wife cohabit for the sake 
of the legitimate purpose of begetting offspring, there 
is but little tax upon the strength or but little risk of 
impairing the generative function. But when the mind 
sinks into the low plane that craves sensual sexual in- 
dulgence, it morbidly and selfishly anticipates the most 
unlimited sway for the passions, and to gratify them 
is liable to become the chief motive and delight. Now 
there is a normal delight in sexual intercourse alto- 
gether different from the morbid craving for indulgence. 
The former is chaste and pure when it spontaneously 
occurs from mutual love and affection between married 
partners, and virility is constantly strengthened for the 
purpose ; with such the love looks to the important 
result — the legitimate fruits of marriage, and rejoices 
when children are born as the mutual pledge of connu- 
bial affection. But the latter is a mere sensual lust 
that looks no higher than for opportunities to gratify 
it. It despises the idea of rearing a family, and the 
children that chance to be born as the consequence of 
this indulgence are not welcomed as blessings, but as 
necessary evils. 

2. There is a limit to this morbid and selfish lust. 
The gratification of it does not strengthen connubial 
tenderness and affection, nor promote the health of 
the parties. After a time the love grows cold, or is 
turned into hatred, and frequent and continual indulg- 
ence ends in the deterioration of mind and body. 

3. The man from continual losses of semen finds his 
digestion impaired, his nervous system weak, and what 
is worse he finds himself the victim of sexual weakness 
and his virility impaired. His wife at the same time 
has become hysterical and fretful, and there is no hap- 
piness in the household. The man and the woman 
only come together when lust excites them to an em- 
brace. At other times their backs are turned to each 
other in disgust and hatred. 

4. Continual cohabitation at length destroys the func- 
tion of the seminal vesicles, and paralyzes the little 



35 

muscles that prevent the escape of the seminal fluid, 
and thus manhood becomes sterile, prostrated and the 
victim of spermatorrhoea, and the woman has become 
his sterile companion. Excessive sexual indulgence 
has been the proximate cause. When the digestion 
has become impaired, and the successive chain of or- 
ganic functions participate in the misfortune, nutrition 
becomes feeble, and the whole body suffers from ema- 
ciation and debility. The effect upon the woman 
is quite similar. She suffers from nausea, de- 
bility, and general nervous prostration. The 
picture is not overwrought. Excessive sexual in- 
dulgence, even in married life, results in the premature 
decline of manhood. It pollutes the soul and fills the 
mind with diverse fancies — it destroys the vital elas- 
ticity of the muscles, saps the nervous system and en- 
tails many weaknesses, such as rheumatism, constipa- 
tion, hemorrhoids and renal disturbances. 

5. When all the vital functions become thus im- 
paired from over-indulgence in sexual intercourse, the 
query arises, Is there no remedy? Is the restoration 
of strength possible, and can manhood be restored? 
If not too low or too far gone we answer these ques- 
tions affirmatively. 

6. When one sensibly feels that his virility is waning, 
let him pause and consider, let him direct his mind 
and thoughts to a higher plane of love and affection, 
let him refrain from indulgence and lust and turn his 
back upon the wicked practice. If he feels feverish 
and restless, let him take a few doses of aconite. If 
his appetite is impaired and his food distresses him, let 
him take nux vo?nica. If his back is weak, rheumatic 
and stiff, let him take cocculus. If his bladder and 
urethra are irritated, let him take cannabis; or if he 
has strangury, let him take cantharis; and for general 
weakness, flaccidity of the penis and spermatorrhoea, 
let him take china persistently, and eat and drink — if his 
appetite permits and nutrition is not completely inter- 
rupted — well cooked meats and vegetables and drink 
wholesome drinks. If he fulfills these conditions with- 



36 

out relapsing into more selfish indulgence of his pas- 
sions. virility may be restored. 

7. The worn out and depressed wife must also direct 
her mind in that channel most conducive to her hap- 
piness. Let her thoughts and affections ascend and 
rest in a religious view of married life. If she suffers 
from nausea and indigestion, she may improve the 
condition of her stomach by taking 3 grs. of the 3d 
trituration of oxalate of cerium. This remedy will 
strengthen her nerves, improve the digestion, allay the 
nausea, and give general tone to body and mind. 

8. When both parties have thus complied with the 
means of regaining health and strength, they will be 
able to come together as man and wife, and with 
lofty sentiments above venery they will happily find 
connubial love and affection to take the place of lust, 
and they may come into the happy relationship of hus- 
band and wife. If otherwise, they will sink lower and 
lower, the victims of excessive lustful indulgence. Con- 
nubial bliss and conjugal tenderness will bloom no more 
for the household. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF ABNORMAL SEMINAL EMIS- 
SIONS. 

Seminal emissions are either abnormal on account of 
the means by which they are brought about, or in re- 
spect to the frequency of their occurrence, whether 
produced by coitus or spontaneous pollutions at short 
intervals. 

2. Long-continued and oft-repeated masturbation in 
both sexes is altogether abnormal, and is the fruitful 
source of disease. In the male it results in disease of 
the reproductive organs, and is followed by emaciation 
and consequent debility of the whole body. Hippo- 
crates maintained that this emaciation indicated the 
atrophy of the spinal cord. He describes the sense of 
formication, or the feeling, as if ants were crawling 
over the skin, as an accompaniment of the atrophy, 



37 

and the loss of seminal fluid while urinating and when 
at stool as the result, and to this is added a sense of 
weariness and shortness of breath after a short walk. 
All this may occur when a person of the most robust 
health is broken down by the vice. 

3. Celsus supports the views of Hippocrates and 
maintains that atrophy of the spinal cord is the imme- 
diate source of emaciation and the legitimate conse- 
quence of abnormal emissions, produced by masturba- 
tion. It has been observed that the emaciation of 
onanists increases in spite of a good appetite and the 
consumption of a large amount of food. Insatiable 
hunger and a good digestion are symptoms that indi- 
cate the struggle of nature to compensate for the losses, 
and yet so long as the spinal centre is the source and 
its atrophy stands out in continual decrease of the flesh, 
satiated hunger and an unimpaired digestion can avail 
but little. This emaciation is often ascribed to the 
rapid growth of youth that sometimes follows puberty. 
The muscles of the hip and lower extremities show 
forth this peculiarity, which is ascribed to pathological 
changes of the spinal cord. 

4. Just in proportion to the emaciation the onanist 
loses his strength. He leaves his bed with difficulty 
in the morning, and is dull and listless during the day, 
even when at his work. In going up stairs he finds 
difficulty in breathing and palpitation of the heart. 
These symptoms of weakness may increase to an alarm- 
ing extent, till the onanist bends over like an old 
man and faints and reels from vertigo on the slightest 
exertion and is obliged to keep his bed. 

4. The case of the onanist, even in the extremity 
described above, is not hopeless. The strength and 
fullness of the body may return when the vice is given 
up and proper remedial means are employed to ob- 
viate the deterioration of the spinal cord. The habit 
broken, the appetite and digestion good, render it 
probable that the 3d decimal trituration of the hypo- 
phosphite of lime, given persistently for a sufficient 
length of time, will restore the spinal cord to its nor- 



3« 

mal size and strength. The remedy may be adminis- 
tered in 3 grain doses, half an hour after each meal 
and before retiring. 

5. Modern physicians concur with Hippocrates and 
Celsus in these descriptions of the consequences of 
seminal losses by onanism. Hoffman says : "The 
onanist loses his strength after frequent seminal eva- 
cuations, the body gets thin, the face pale, the mem- 
ory blunted or lost, and a continual coldness seizes 
the limbs ; the face becomes idiotic, the voice hoarse, 
and in short the whole body is reduced to atrophy, 
and sleeplessness, restlessness and tormenting dreams 
are the usual concomitant symptoms." The same au- 
thor says : ''Amaurosis or total blindness is some- 
times the consequence of abnormal seminal evacua- 
tions." 

6. Boerhaave has noticed "pain in the membranes 
of the brain, weakness of the body, blunting of the 
senses, leanness and paralysis, and this is not all. The 
face loses its healthy and beautiful tint, becomes pale, 
earthlike and yellowish, or lead colored and livid ; the 
lips pale and the eye dim and glassy. The bluish 
margin around the eyes, a pufthess of the lids, flabbi- 
ness of the flesh, weak and small pulse, copious sweats, 
swelling of the upper and lower extremities, and finally 
hectic fever and general symptoms of exhaustion are the 
deplorable consequences, which show that the organ- 
ism does not succumb to the onslaught on its integrity 
without the most obstinate struggle." To change this 
condition requires, as before stated, a complete cessa- 
tion of the polluting habit and a steadfast resolution 
to rely on the best regimen and remedial means to re- 
store the body to its normal health. 

7. At first the abuse of the genital organs begets in 
the onanist a sense of hunger and a voracious appetite, 
but long-continued sexual abuse results in indigestion, 
loss of appetite and disgust for food, or at best the ap- 
petite becomes irregular, vague and beset with morbid 
cravings and derangement of the sense of taste. Food 
taken into the stomach causes pain and vomiting, or 



39 

diarrhoea and flatulence or constipation and hemor- 
rhoids. For this condition sulphur and nux vomica 
may be given as follows : Upon the supposition that 
the victim is alarmed at the consequences and has broken 
oft' the habit which induces abnormal seminal losses, 
give sulphur^ 3d, every night for a week, and then follow 
with a dose of the 3d of nux v. every night just 
before retiring, and with such a diet as will accord 
with the condition of the stomach, the above conse- 
quences in many cases may be obviated. 

8. Abnormal seminal emissions are said by Deslandes 
to lead to other diseases, classed among the severer 
and fatal forms, such as apoplexy, ramollissement, epi- 
lepsy, chorea, mental disorders, spinal irritation, blind- 
ness, deafness, gout, strabismus, varicocele, sarcocele 
and hydrocele, many of which are incurable, and they 
must therefore remain as a permanent warning to young 
men not to make shipwreck of themselves upon the 
rock upon which so many have foundered and sunk. 

9. Another consequence of onanism is the complete 
decline of virility and inability to propagate their kind 
either because they are unable to perform the marital 
act or because they have lost all the warmth which 
healthy semen requires to vivify the female germs. 
Should such enervated individuals beget children, upon 
the principle that "like begets like," they will be feeble 
and puny, and as they grow to maturity they will be 
ill-shaped, bow-legged, oldish-looking specimens of 
humanity, and victims for an early grave. The more 
healthy, strong and sound the father, the more robust 
and perfect will be his oft spring. 

10. Bodily diseases alone are quite enough to utter a 
warning to the onanist. But they are trifling when 
compared with the awful consequences upon the soul. 
The mind succumbs, childishness and imbecility are its 
attributes, and he becomes a moral monstrosity ; thank 
heaven, monsters cannot propagate, neither physical or 
moral, for manhood is gone, virility destroyed, and the 
vessel is a complete w r reck in the sea of human infirmi- 



4o 



ties. Such are the consequences of this kind of abnor- 
mal seminal losses. 

11. As stated in the preceding chapter, a high, licen- 
tious degree of sexual abuse results in hopeless degen- 
eracy of the organs of reproduction, as well as of the 
whole animal system. Their excitability gradually 
diminishes, and mental disorders, associated with their 
diseased condition, become prominent. This is espe- 
cially the case when the body is well nourished with 
good food, while at the same time the debilitating 
cause continues to act on the genital organs. Pangs of 
conscience, remorse, shame or fear of the terrible con- 
sequences, as set forth in certain books, easily excite 
apprehension, melancholy and hypochondria. When 
the mind constantly fights against the disease-pro- 
ducing lust, it is in a continual state of excitement. 
The brain becomes affected, and mental disturbance or 
insanity is superinduced upon the physical weakness, 
and in the lust it changes to hopeless idiocy. 

12. The conviction of incurable impotence, joined to 
intemperate habits resorted to for the purpose of silenc- 
ing anxiety and fearful forebodings, frequently contri- 
butes to unsettle the mind and pave the way to hope- 
less dementia. One-tenth of all the inmates of our 
insane asylums are of this class of secret sinners, who 
still continue the vile habit of self-abuse, though 
brought to spiritual and moral bankruptcy. Insanity, 
hallucinations, loss of sight and hearing in a moral 
point of view form the climax, characteristic of the con- 
sequences, and withal these idiotic victims of sexual 
abuse embrace every secret opportunity to instinctively 
cultivate and practice the vile habit of onanism. 

13. The consequences of masturbation in the female 
sex are equally disastrous and injurious to the gener- 
al organism. Some eminent physicians maintain 
that the delicate and susceptible organization of the 
female system renders it more liable to suffer from this 
vice than that of the male. Suffice it to say the female 
masturbater suffers all the physical and mental deteri- 
oration that the practice induces in the opposite sex, 



4i 

and besides she becomes the victim of uterine affec- 
tions of a serious nature, such as disturbance of the 
menses, prolapsus, displacement, ulcers, indurations, 
and cancer. 

14. One of the most serious consequences of the 
habit is local irritation of the nerves of the womb, re- 
sulting in nymphomania, which affects both soul and 
body, and degrades the finest feelings and attributes 
of her being — disgusting to herself, and a shock upon 
female or womanly modesty. 

15. Rozier, a French physician, asserts that mas- 
turbation in girls, by the frequent and powerful cramp- 
like contractions accompanying the fulfillment of the 
act, induces considerable swelling of the neck, as in 
epileptics ; and further, that in some the skin becomes 
yellow, and in others eruptions resembling ringworms 
make their appearance on the arms and legs, which 
disappear when they refrain from the vice, but return 
when a repetition is indulged in. The voice, also, 
of such girls becomes rough and hoarse, hollow and 
weak, losing its sonorous, soft and metallic ring. 

16. A feeling of oppression in the chest and region 
of the stomach, with a dragging, occasionally indi- 
cating the need of food, are consequent on the habit. 
Severe cramps in the stomach, and similar disturbances 
of the solar plexus especially, show themselves in girls 
who indulge in this habit, and at the same time leu- 
corrhcea becomes established, attended with other 
troubles, such as spasms and cramps in various parts of 
the body, eructations after eating, distention of the ab- 
domen, difficult digestion, headache and restless moving 
of the limbs. 

17. A sallow countenance and an ugly expression of 
the face, which is pale and sickly, are signs which beto- 
ken the physical and mental depression, consequent 
upon masturbation. The vivacious expression of youth 
gives way, the eye becomes dim and surrounded by 
leaden colored rings, the lips are pale, the teeth cov- 
ered with a gummy and dirty-looking mucus. The 
entire fullness of feminine spirit and beauty has seem- 



42 



in'gly vanished, and the shrunken image betokens pre- 
mature decline. Both heart and mind suffer more in 
comparison from the habit than is the case with the op- 
posite sex. Worse than all are the pangs of conscience, 
and mortification, and grief which such a vile habit 
engenders. This, added to physical exhaustion, be- 
comes prophetic of the shipwreck of all the glorious 
attributes of womanhood. The yoke under which she 
habitually labors is of such a nature, that the mind 
moves in a perpetual circle, and from which it cannot 
elevate itself. The whole endeavor is to mislead the 
eyes of others away from her true condition, and to 
recall the memories and imaginations which give fresh 
encouragement to the lascivious practice. 

1 8. And yet another kind of moral deformity may 
spring up from the practice. The mind accustomed 
only to its own selfish broodings and lascivious thoughts, 
does not feel at ease in other spheres of thought. The 
pleasure of self-abuse then becomes the chief delight 
of those erring misses, and they give themselves up to 
it. All pleasure of concourse of the sexes is lost, and 
nothing but loathing and indifference takes its place* 
Their own silent, or rather secluded indulgence, eclipses 
the higher and nobler enjoyments. The sexual im- 
pulse with such is perverted and usurps dominion, and 
is much more frequent, according to Tissot, in women 
than in men. He cites the case of a wife who had 
become so confirmed in the habit of masturbation that 
she esteemed the pleasure superior to marital inter- 
course, for which she felt an unmitigated disgust. Tis- 
sot also remarks that this abominable habit keeps some 
girls from marrying at an age when they could do 
so ; because, in their estimation, it would deprive them 
of this unnatural method of gratifying their passions, 
and hence the increased number of old maids. 

ig. It is true that the fluids lost by women by mas- 
turbation are less vital and perfect than that lost by 
men, and for this reason women can endure these exer- 
cises longer and more frequently without apparent 
injury. But the longer and oftener the woman gives 



43 

herself up to the practice, the more serious the conse- 
quences become, and this is attributable to the delicate 
organization of the female system. 

20. Among the examples of broken down constitu- 
tions, occasioned by the vice, we find recorded numer- 
ous instances of confirmed melancholy and insanity, 
nymphomania, idiocy and suicide. Dr. V. .Graifa, of 
Berlin, relates a remarkable case of recovery from idiocy 
in a young woman after the amputation of the clitoris 
and the cessation of masturbation. 

21. The treatment required for impaired female 
constitutions, so long as reason and moral sense re- 
mains, must primarily be moral — onanism must be dis- 
carded, denounced and condemned. The mind must 
be directed to higher aspirations and purer thoughts, 
and for the debility and loss of strength, a good whole- 
some diet, and exercise in the open air are commended, 
with two doses of china daily until relieved. For the 
cramps of the incipient stage give mix vomica and 
sepia 3d decimal, whenever they occur. For the weary, 
tired and listless feeling, arnica third decimal, may be 
taken twice a day. For nervousness and hysteria or 
for timidity and spasm, hyoscyamus may be given three 
or four times during the day. If dejected and inclined 
to weep, ignatia. For epileptiform troubles, cuprum 
met. Loss of mind and memory, sulphur. For nym- 
phomania, cantharis. All of these remedies may be 
employed in the 3d decimal attenuation, and prepared 
for administration in the usual way. 

22. Certain aliments are prohibited, such as oysters, 
eggs, and indigestible meats, and all stimulating bever- 
ages. By following the above directions all will be 
accomplished that can be in the way of restoring sound 
health. 

CHAPTER X. 

CONSEQUENCES OF SPERMATORRHEA AFFECTING THE 
WHOLE SYSTEM. 

I. Spermatorrhoea, as before stated, consists of un- 



44 



conscious seminal emissions, that occur from the most 
trivial excitement, distinct from the disease-producing 
causes on which it depends. It gives rise to a series of 
symptoms of great importance to the entire organic 
structure of man. It is not only evident that the 
causes of spermatorrhoea sometimes remain, but that 
they affect pathological changes in different parts of the 
genital organs. The disturbances which are wholly 
due to the seminal losses are as follows : 

2. The entire organism becomes altered and im- 
paired ; the sufferer without being able to fix the local- 
ity of the pain, and probably without realizing the 
nature of his trouble, is beset with general discomfort, 
lassitude and trembling weakness of the extremities — 
a depressed condition of the entire body, and a distaste 
for any occupation of body or mind; not fully realizing 
the nature of his trouble, nor able to explain, he retires 
exhausted, sleeps indifferently, and awakes without 
having been refreshed or improved in strength, with a 
sense of pressure, fullness and dizziness of the head, 
and inclination to fainting. 

3. An enfeebled and sick body is but a feeble in- 
strument for the mind that depends upon the cerebral 
center for its integrity. It must therefore suffer when 
the body is thus depressed. Its activity is seriously 
impaired and morbid. The fire of the intellect can 
glow but faintly when the whole physical system is in 
such a flickering condition. For matter and spirit are 
so closely and intimately related in human beings, 
there must be a reciprocal influence of each upon the 
other, or a perpetual conflict between nature and 
spirit, body and soul, or matter and force. 

4. And to add to the misery and wretchedness, a 
knowledge of its source, or a self-consciousness of guilt 
and the probability of having become the victim of 
incurable disease, only opens the channel for fearful 
and tormenting forebodings. Impotence is mortify- 
ing, and to be in this hopeless condition fills the mind 
with despair and leads to confirmed melancholy. 

5. Then, further, a continual depression of spirits. 



45 

and brooding over this unpleasant condition, leads to 
intemperate stimulation, and this to affections of the 
brain, and a train of evil consequences that betokens a 
complete wreck of body and mind, the fruits of which 
may culminate in despair and suicide, or in insanity or 
idiocy, and the absolute loss of mental impressibility, 
and finally a sinking away in exhaustion, or an apo- 
plectic convulsion, may end the train of evil conse- 
quences of self-abuse and spermatorrhoea. 

6. There is another class of symptoms that some- 
times shows itself as the consequence of abnormal sem- 
inal losses. This class embraces great muscular weak- 
ness, and different forms of paralysis. There is an 
intimate relation and mutual dependence that exists 
between the nervous system and the blood ; nervous 
energy depends on the purity and normal condition of 
the blood. An impoverished condition of the circula- 
tion explains the diminution of muscular power. For 
it is self-evident that the vis nervosa, which is the natu- 
ral stimulant of muscular power, must cease to be 
active, in the degree that it fails of support from the 
blood. Spermatorrhoea not only deprives the circula- 
tion of the purest elements of the blood, and thus pro- 
duces an irritable condition of the nervous system, 
but by reflex irritability the nearest spinal nerves and 
thence the whole cerebro-spinal system may become 
affected ; and by continuity the muscles become sub- 
ject to extreme weakness and paralysis. As for exam T 
pie the lower extremities sometimes exhibit a semi- 
paralytic condition, causing the victim at every step to 
throw his legs, irrespective of muscular control. 

7. Paralysis of the bladder, rectum and anus follow, 
and the muscles of the hip also become implicated. 
Sometimes only a single locality becomes paralyzed, 
and this may be the tongue or perchance the sphincter 
of the bladder or anus, and this depends upon the ex- 
tent of the irritation of the nervous system. 

8. When brain affections are becoming more exten- 
sive, one organ after another may show the effect in par- 
tial paralysis. When stuttering and stammering or loss 



46 



of speech entirely manifest themselves, we are led to 
suspect some affection of the nerves immediately con- 
nected with the brain, on which the muscular apparatus 
depends ; and it does not necessarily follow that other 
localities will become similarly affected. 

9. But inasmuch as spermatorrhoea being in some 
instances, the primary cause of paralysis of the tongue, 
this symptom has been regarded as ominous of more 
serious troubles, when the losses of semen are persis- 
tent. It may be the first alarm of an increasing or 
progressive paralysis that may terminate in general 
mania, and on this account the symptoms have been 
studied in lunatic asylums as the prodromous or lore- 
runner of alarming results. 

10. That the most frightful cases of chorea arise 
from self-abuse and seminal losses, no reasonable 
doubt obtains. The irritation of the brain which re- 
sults therefrom, causes a semi-paralytic condition of 
the facial muscles, which gives numerous twitchings 
and a peculiar expression to the face, and if not obvi- 
ated there may arise a more extensive paralysis impli- 
cating the optic and auricular nerves, and those of the 
palpebral muscles, rendering it difficult to open or 
close the eyes. 

11. But the effect does not end with mere weakness 
of sight. Rognita describes a case of amaurosis from 
excessive seminal losses in a young Jesuit from Paler- 
mo, who indulged in self-abuse six or seven times a 
day. Deslandes considers the amaurosis a symptom of 
great exhaustion, and of a parallel character with that 
of the legs from spinal irritation. In addition to this 
blindness, the motor muscles of the eye may become 
sadly affected, and strabismus and spasms of the great- 
est intensity may take place, and also a constant lach- 
rymation and agglutination of the eyelids in the morn- 
ing. 

12. It must be confessed that spinal irritation is one 
of the most disagreeable consequences of spermator- 
rhoea. It is a diseased condition intermediate between 
nerve pain and inflammation, and is denoted by a press- 



47 

ing, drawing sensation in the region of the hips and 
small of the back ; disturbed sensibility, formication, 
alternation of coldness and heat, pressure and weight, 
and pain in bending down, and through the enfeebled 
genitals the irritation extends to the lower portion of 
the spinal cord, and is reflected to the testes and penis, 
producing in them a sensation of drawing, pressure 
and dullness, extending to the inguinal and hypogas- 
tric regions, and from thence it may be reflected up- 
wards to other organs, producing an uncontrollable 
restlessness. 

13. A super sensitiveness of the entire organism is 
liable to result. The auricular nerves are too sensitive 
to endure loud talking, music and the like. The sub- 
ject is unable to concentrate his thoughts on any sub- 
ject. He can neither endure the act of reading or 
writing, and he must therefore remain inactive, beset 
with sleeplessness, headaches, dizziness, perverted 
taste and smell, and pricking and itching of the skin. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE EFFECT OF SPERMATORRHOEA UPON THE RESPIRA- 
TORY SYSTEM AND THE HEART AND OTHER ORGANS. 

I . In the course of the general irritation of the nervous 
system, arising from spermatorrhoea, the breathing ap- 
paratus becomes implicated, and oppression of the 
chest and precordial anxiety weigh heavily upon the 
patient. A short, dry, and persistent cough most al- 
ways results from the sensitive condition of the pulmo- 
nary and bronchial nerves, and palpitation of the 
heart sets in to complete the picture. Nearly every 
authority upon the causes of sexual diseases allude 
definitely to the asthmatic symptoms produced by 
pollutions and spermatorrhoea ; associated with these 
are dry cough, debility, feebleness, restlessness, perspi- 
ration and stitches, which actually imitate the symp- 
toms that usually accompany tuberculosis. Many a 
practitioner has been puzzled to institute a diagnosis, 
to tell the difference. 



4 8 

2. Diseases of the heart and large blood vessels fre- 
quently result from self-abuse and spermatorrhoea, 
and sometimes from excessive sexual indulgence. Nev- 
ertheless, of organic trouble of the heart may be present 
without any lesion. In such cases the appearance is 
due to spinal irritation alone, which extends in a 
greater or less degree to the medulla oblongata and 
cerebellum, and this also explains the unbearable pain 
and sensation of pressure at the nape of the neck and 
back of the head, and the tendency to bend backwards 
as in opisthotonos of the neck in transient tetanus. 

3. Gouty pains in the feet and knees, or hands and 
fingers, in conjunction with convulsive movements and 
trembling are also consequent upon self-pollution and 
spermatorrhoea. Epilepsy and chorea frequently fol- 
low sexual excesses — the latter more frequently in 
young girls troubled with thread worms, who, through 
their biting and itching influences, have led to rub- 
bing and masturbation. 

4. Through disturbed innervation the nerves of the 
stomach become implicated, producing pains, cramps 
and spasms, and through the general deterioration of 
the body indigestion and defective nutrition may result. 
The torpor of the muscular system throughout all the 
organs retards or depresses the vital activity of all the 
organic functions, and loss of appetite, dyspepsia and 
depression of spirits are certain to render mind and 
body uncomfortable. 

5. The vitality of the skin becomes impaired and its 
function interrupted, and when distended by foul gases 
in the stomach, and wind, the condition fully accounts 
for the severe colic and cessation of peristaltic action, 
accompanied by constipation from which the victim 
continually suffers. Constipation is one consequence 
of spermatorrhoea, and it serves at the same time to 
stimulate a renewal of seminal losses. 

6. Constipation and hemorrhoids, which frequently 
exist at the same time, are probably classed among the 
products of continual seminal losses, and also other af- 
fections implicating the neck of the bladder and prostate 



5i 

sufficient to oppose the ejaculatory forces, and prevent 
the flow of semen during the act of copulation; such 
obstacles are difficult to overcome. 

13. Atrophy, and cancerous induration of the testes 
are most unfavorable in regard to prognosis. Sarco- 
cele, varicocele, and hydrocele inevitably lead to impo- 
tence, because the secretion of the seminal fluid in such 
cases is hindered, or sexual intercourse is both painful 
and difficult. Spermatocele, which is a swollen condi- 
tion of the scrotum, resulting from an accumulation of 
seminal fluid in the testes, epididymis and vas defer- 
ens, either through voluntary retention of semen in 
copulation or through abstinence, is undoubtedly fol- 
lowed by impotence. 

1-4. Such are in general and in particular the causes 
of impotence, and nearly all of which may be traceable 
directly or indirectly to some form of self- abuse, and 
such are the consequences of pollutions and spermator- 
rhoea, as seen in the premature decline of manhood. 
The picture drawn in the foregoing of the disastrous 
consequences of pollutions and spermatorrhoea, al- 
though correct to a certain extent, must be viewed 
more as a warning to those addicted to self-abuse, 
than a source of discouragement to those unfortu- 
nately afflicted, and therefore in the following chapter 
we shall treat of marriage in relation to sexual weak- 
ness. 

CHAPTER XII. 

MARRIAGE, IN RELATION TO SEXUAL WEAKNESS. 

1. When a morbid imagination has led to sexual 
abuse, and the whole sexual system has become im- 
paired thereby, the victim is no sooner aroused to a 
sense of his condition, than a morbid and discouraging 
fancy begins to influence him in another direction, and 
he too frequently regards himself the victim of incura- 
ble disease. But this is not warranted. 

2. When a young man who from some cause or influ- 
ence had been initiated into solitary habits of self- 



5 2 

abuse begins to think seriously upon the consequences, 
he is apt to imagine himself untit to assume the rela- 
tion of husband to a wife, and under a sense of remorse 
he broods over his situation until he dreads the future, 
and hesitates when he looks upon marriage as desira- 
ble. But there is in the main no occasion for this, and 
the sooner his will can triumph over these morbid fore- 
bodings the better. 

3. When he comes into a state to renounce and de- 
nounce as wicked and disorderly the habit of self-pollu- 
tion, he takes the first step to regain his manhood. If 
he suffers from sensible weakness on account of what 
has happened, it behooves him to employ the best rem- 
edial measures, with hopeful reliance on them for a 
cure. Looking forward to matrimony is as likely to 
benefit him as any means he can employ, provided his 
motives for entering into such a state are right, and he 
desires to become an affectionate and faithful husband. 
Even if some of the effects of his former indiscretion 
remain, the marriage relation is as likely to favor his 
entire recovery from them, and even more so than if he 
remains single. 

4. In a happy married life the incitement to sexual 
intercourse being normal and springing from affection, 
has a tendency to strengthen mind and body for the 
purpose. The affection of such a man for his wife, who 
fully requites his love, has an undoubted tendency to 
strengthen the sexual system. We have known in- 
stances of seminal weakness so great as to excite appre- 
hension and alarm, to entirely pass away after mar- 
riage. But in such cases much has depended upon the 
previous exertion of the will to fix the mind upon chaste 
subjects and to avoid all excesses and broodings over the 
past. A young student of the university, subject to 
nocturnal emissions four or five times a week, found 
himself in a failing condition of health, and without 
ability to concentrate his mind upon his studies. He 
applied for advice, and medical treatment. He became 
very despondent and imagined for himself the worst of 
future consequences. To encourage his hopes, and 



53 

direct his mind to chaste subjects, he was advised to 
turn his attention to the subject of marriage, and to 
look forward to such an event for himself ; to which 
he replied that his indiscreet habits had ruined him 
and blasted his hopes in this direction. Although he 
had fully broken himself of masturbation, the evils en- 
tailed was what beset him, and interfered with his 
health and peace of mind, and he had therefore con- 
cluded to abandon his studies, and try to recover him- 
self in some secluded way. Remedies were given him, 
accompanied by encouragement to rest awhile, and try 
the " Health Lift." He did so, and derived great 
benefit. After a season of rest he returned with ability 
to complete his studies, not cured of his infirmity, but 
greatly improved ; after which he left the university 
and went into business, and soon became engaged to a 
lovely lady for whom he cherished the purest affection. 
But he hesitated and delayed entering upon marriage 
until advised that such an event might obviate and 
cure his emissions, and be the means of restoring 
rather than of diminishing his sexual ability. He 
finally took courage and entered into wedlock and be- 
came a happy husband, and in due time the father of 
several children, and after was never troubled with the 
weakness that had so preyed upon his mind. 

5. The above is by no means a solitary example. 
Marriage from pure motives, and not as a means of 
gratifying lust, is ordained of heaven to be the means 
of strengthening and perfecting the powers of man- 
hood, and getting rid of many evils incident to a bach- 
elor's life. Love is not lust, and in a beautiful and 
affectionate wife it brings love in return, and this love 
is life, and full of power to overcome weakness and 
give legitimate strength to virility. 

6. But to look forward to marriage as a license to 
whoredom must be corrupting to the wife, and a source 
of greater weakness and suffering to both parties. In 
this instance lust takes the place of love ; and as lust 
has previously led to excesses and self-abuse, to marry 
for the sake of affording it unlimited indulgence is only 



54 

adding fresh fuel to the fire, and the physical and men- 
tal strength diminishes, and peace, love and affection 
depart from the household. 

7. We will therefore say to all young men that mar- 
riage from pure motives is honorable, and though the 
follies of youth may have preyed upon your health and 
brought on pollutions and even spermatorrhoea, you 
are not lost — your manhood is not gone — provided you 
exercise the power of will to break off all lewd habits 
which a morbid imagination begets, and turn your at- 
tention to true love and marriage ; for love, requited 
and pure, is the fulfilling of the law of marriage ; it 
can never lead to sexual excesses, but by the employ- 
ment of judicious measures in connection therewith, it 
may give fresh lite to the mental and physical powers, 
obviate disease, and cure seminal weaknesses. In or- 
der there is beauty and strength — in disorder there is 
confusion and weakness. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

RECAPITULATION AND TREATMENT OF SEXUAL WEAK- 
NESSES. 

i. In the foregoing chapters we have enumerated the 
causes that operate to produce the premature decline 
of manhood, and the numerous effects that proceed 
from these causes. We have also given some general 
therapeutic hints concerning remedies. In this chap- 
ter we shall conclude the work by a brief recapitulation 
and special treatment with diet, regimen and reme- 
dies. 

2. In all cases the cause, whatever it may be, must 
be removed if possible before the effect can cease, and 
causes are of two kinds, viz.: primary and secondary. 

Primary causes are those which primarily act upon 
the general health, inducing functional or organic de- 
rangement. 

Secondary causes are the conditions that immedi- 
ately influence, aggravate or induce diseases of the 
seminal vessels. 



55 

3. Among the primary causes of masturbation with 
the young of both sexes, we have seen that worms and 
eruptive difficulties, that occasion much itching and 
consequent rubbing and scratching, are to be included; 
and it is incumbent on parents to be exceedingly par- 
ticular with their children at this tender age, in order 
to guard them against such initiative influences. 

Treatment. — For thread worms, sulphur^ santonin 
and terebinth, have each proved successful in remov- 
ing them. The sulphur may be given in the 6th dilu- 
tion, a dose every twenty-four hours. Should this fail, 
follow with santonin 3d, morning and evening, or with 
terebinth. 3d, morning, noon and night. Give the 
sulphur and terebinth, in drop doses in a spoonful of 
water, and the santonin in powder. This treatment 
will often suffice to arrest the effects of those annoying 
parasites. To cure the eruptive difficulty and relieve 
the itching, petroleum 6th in drop doses three times a 
day will be found useful, or else calcarea conium and 
sulphur. 

When girls at a tender age have been initiated into 
masturbation by such annoyances, serious conse- 
quences have arisen. We have recently seen a sad 
case of chorea which resulted from these insignificant 
parasites, first initiating the habit of rubbing and then 
of masturbation. She was cured of the malady by 
terebinth; 6th. She was past nine years of age, and 
after becoming relieved of the thread worms, her gen- 
eral health and strength was greatly improved. Other 
cases have been cured by sulphur given persistently 
every night for a month. Santonin after sulphur will 
generally exert a healthy influence upon the mucous 
membrane, and entirely obviates the itching, and 
therefore one of the primary causes that initiates into 
the habit of self-abuse becomes removed. Itching 
from some eruptive disease on the integuments of the 
genital organs, is another primary cause of self-abuse 
and sexual weakness. This eruption has been cured 
by petroleum, and the itching entirely subdued. Coni- 
um mac. has been successfully employed for the same 



56 

purpose, and so has sulphur. The two former, when 
required, may be given in the 3d dilution three times a 
day, and the latter when required may be given in the 
tincture every twenty-four hours. 

When sexual weakness is primarily caused by 
masturbation, there is little hope of cure until the 
mind, the thoughts, motives and sentiments be- 
come set against the habit, nor until the mind becomes 
elevated above that condition which a morbid imagi- 
nation engenders. To come into this state requires a 
strong will, and in youth, the kindest encouragement 
from friends. 

If, as a result of self-abuse, there occur nocturnal 
emissions, causing a sense of debility and dullness, 
china 3d dilution may be administered three times a 
day before each meal, or until the sense of debility is 
removed, or plantago major 3d dilution may be given 
in the same way. Where there is a feeling of malaise 
and confusion after excessive emissions phosphoric acid 
dissolved in water, the 3d decimal in 5 drop doses 
may be given morning and evening until the malaise 
and confusion are better. Selenitim 3 may be given in- 
stead if there is vertigo on rising in the morning, or 
there has been an oozing out of semen when asleep, or 
a discharge of prostatic fluid. Sepia 6th to the 3d will 
cure excessive nocturnal emissions when they are fol- 
lowed by hypochondria, weak memory, sadness, de- 
pression of spirits, dullness of the head, and weakness 
of the sexual organs. When constipation aggravates 
the discharges, or excites them nux vom. 3d or 6th may 
be given to overcome the difficulty. Dr. W. H. Burt 
cured several cases of spermatorrhoea, attended with 
much nervous irritability, with half grain doses of 
bro7iiide of potassium, repeated every six hours for sev- 
eral days. Cannabis sativa has been prescribed success- 
fully when urethral inflammation has excited seminal 
emissions. Dr. Baehr says, digitaline will cure the 
severest cases of involuntary seminal discharges, espe- 
cially when there is great weakness and palpitation of 
the heart. 



57 

Other writers maintain that after all the voluntary 
causes have been removed, the involuntary effects that 
remain must be treated in accordance with the promi- 
nent symptoms, as in case of anaemia and debility and 
frequent pollutions, ferrum py?vphosp. and china, or in 
case of constipation and hemorrhoids nux vomica and 
sulphur administered alternately night and morning, 
or if strangury is a prominent symptom attendant 
on pollutions, and painful erections, cantharis 3d or 6th 
given three times a day before meals will generally 
cure spermatorrhoea, which consists of an involun- 
tary discharge of seminal fluid, when at stool or when 
urinating, or at other times from the slightest exciting 
causes, and especially when there are but feeble erec- 
tions, or flaccidity of the penis ; and when there is 
great weakness of the back and spine conium macula- 
turn may be given in the 6th decimal dilution three 
times a day before meals ; calcis hypoph. is also a reme- 
dy much esteemed. A small powder of the second 
decimal three times a day after meals has done well 
in many cases. Hypophosphite of zinc deserves a careful 
study. Oxalate of cerium is a valuable remedy for sper- 
matorrhoea as borne out by clinical experience. A small 
powder of the 2d decimal may be given three times a 
day. 

Ustilago madis in the hands of Dr.W. H. Burt cured 
a case of nocturnal emissions of long standing when 
other remedies had failed. 

Cypripedium pubescens. Dr. E. M. Hale administered 
this remedy in a case of great nervous prostration and 
depression of spirits, and it seemed to impart new tone 
and vigor to the nervous system. 

The remedies in general for spermatorrhoea include 
those prescribed for nocturnal emissions, as well as 
those known to act on the spinal centre, the most 
prominent of which are co?iium mac, digitaline, ferrum 
pyro., nux vom., plantago major, selenium, and when 
there are great weakness, emaciation, dullness and 
depression, china, phosphoric acid, sepia and sulphur. 

While taking remedies, great care is required to 



5» 

avoid all medicinal articles of diet, all distilled and 
fermented liquors. The doses of the liquids where not 
mentioned are from I to 5 drops in water, to be re- 
peated from one to four times in 24 hours. 

By carefully studying the therapeutic hints given in 
the preceding pages, and making a practical applicar 
tion of the remedies pointed out, we confidently assert 
that no one need despair of deriving the most desira- 
ble benefits. 

And, further, a confiding trust in Providence and a 
firm reliance upon the best appointed means will in- 
vigorate the whole system, dissipate fears, depression 
of spirits and physical weakness, restore happiness, 
and promote a certain return to manhood. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY IN THE TREAT- 
MENT OF SEMINAL WEAKNESS. 

The effect of electricity upon the nervous system has 
received greater or less attention for several years. Of 
late it has been classed among the most effective reme- 
dial agents, and is applicable to those conditions which 
are dependant upon spinal irritation, and particularly 
upon atrophy of the cord. It is undoubtedly a useful 
remedy for torpid states of the nerves that convey the 
vis nervosa to certain parts, and as such it may be em- 
ployed in the treatment of seminal weakness. But it 
is an unsuitable agent to be tampered with, and none 
but careful hands should undertake to administer it — 
and then according to explicit directions. 

The Faraday Battery, which is an excellent appara- 
tus for treating a variety of nervous difficulties, is not 
so desirable in the treatment of spermatorrhoea. The 
interrupted currents sometimes cause a succession of 
slight shocks, which, instead of increasing the vital 
activity of the seminal vesicles, act disastrously upon 
them. It is, therefore, important to have a suitable 
electrical apparatus, of light construction, that can be 
called into requisition when needed. The Voltaic, or 
Galvanic pile, is by far the most preferable for effect- 



59 

ive purposes. An ingenious pocket battery, invented 
by J. J. Geiger* is, in point of economy and superla- 
tive usefulness, the very best in use, and by the employ- 
ment of it in many of the most inveterate cases of noc- 
turnal emissions, as well as in the more obstinate cases 
of spermatorrhoea, it has been found, in most instances, 
to produce satisfactory results. But in order to pro- 
mote its usefulness in these distressing maladies, it 
must be borne in mind that even the imponderable 
agents are powerless unless brought into certain rela- 
tions in subserviency to the laws and conditions that 
govern them. 

Therefore, in the treatment of these troubles, patients 
must deliberately, and with determination, abandon all 
exciting causes, avoid excesses in eating and drinking, 
and be always particular to shun couches of down or 
feathers, because the toleration of these might inter- 
fere with the use of the battery. It is also incumbent 
on patients to avoid all violent exercise or excessive 
physical exertion, and to keep the mind directed to 
cheerful and interesting topics — to keep good, social, 
and improving society, and to indulge in reading useful, 
improving, and entertaining books. 

The Geiger Battery, with full directions for its use, 
can be obtained of Clindinning & Co., No. 35 South 
Clark street, Chicago, who are agents for the same. 
The mode of using them in the treatment of these af- 
fections is as follows : Once in two or three days, pre- 
pare the battery as directed, and place the positive elec- 
trode immediately back of the scrotum, and the nega- 
tive part above the small of the back — use the pri- 
mary current. It is said by some that this treatment 
is universally useful, and with one of Geiger's Batter- 
ies the current can be varied in force. At first it 
should be moderate and of brief duration, and after- 
wards, as the patient becomes accustomed to it, the 
force of the current may be increased, and the length 
of time it is employed may be increased to twenty 
minutes, if necessary. 

*For sale by Clindinning & Co., 35 South Clark Street Chicago, 
Illinois. 



mm 



L_ 



